Van Herk finishes up university swimming career at nationals

Cedar Springs’ Brendan Van Herk swam for five years at the university level and qualified for the U Sports championships all five years.

Van Herk, a member of the University of Ottawa swim team, competed at the U Sports swimming championships held in Pointe-Claire, Quebec last month. That marked Van Herk’s final swim for the Garnet and Grey.

Van Herk had two top-eight results, placing fifth in the 200m medley (2:06.87) and. logged a time of 2:06.99 in the 200m butterfly A-final, finishing eighth overall.

At this year’s national championship, the Gee-Gees men’s team finished in fifth place with 516.50 points.

“Training with these athletes, they have a lot of heart,” Van Herk said about the Gee-Gees swim team on the Ottawa athletics website. “We didn’t have our pool for half the season and we still pulled off some amazing things, some amazing performances. I’m super grateful I made the switch to this team.”

Van Herk began his university swimming career at the University of Regina for two years, then transferred to Ottawa. Van Herk competed with the Blenheim Blast swim team prior to going to college. He went to Ursuline College for high school, but UCC didn’t have a swim team.

“It’s been amazing to race with these people, to train with these people, be coached by these people. I have no words to describe how grateful I am for every single one of the people on this team, I’ll forever be grateful for that.”

At his final RSEQ conference meet , Van Herk earned four medals; two silvers in the 100m butterfly and 400m relay, and two bronze, in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

A Human Kinetics major, Van Herk has twice (2020-2021, 2022-23) been an U Sports Academic All-Canadian.